Transition

to a class-divided
society in post-war Japan
The aim of this course:
Introduction to contemporary Japanese society

•  Four topics:

(1) Discourses of all-middle-class society and economic inequality
(2) Rapid demographic transformation
(3) Family and gender in contemporary Japan
(4) Aging population and dysfunction of “Japan-type welfare society”
The aim of today’s class
•  Discuss the discourse of “all-middle-class society” or “classless
society” in the 1970s and 1980s, and the debates on the
emerging class-divided society since the late 1990s.

•  Consider whether a paradigm shift from all-middle-class

society to a class-divided society has explicitly taken place in
Japan.

Japanese economy since the 1950s

1955～1973 High Economic Growth Era

m i d d l e-
1973 The First Oil Shock All-
s s o ci e ty
1973～1986 Low Growth Era clas
1986～1991 Bubble Economy Era
1991～ Heisei Recession
Class-div
2008  Lehman Shock ided
society
2012～ 　Abenomics

 Discourse of “All-Middle-Class Society”
•  The OECD found Japan to be the most egalitarian society
among member countries (Sawyer 1976) . This report
partly had a role to play in the assessment of Japan as a
classless society.

•  In 1984, Yasusuke Murakami published his book, Shin
Chukan Taishu no Jidai (The Age of the New Middle Class).
It welcomed the arrival of a classless society with a
disproportionately large percentage of Japanese people
identifying themselves as middle class.
 The overall distribution of class identity has
remained largely unchanged since 1980.
Trend in attitudes towards living standard (%)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Lower Lower middle Middle Upper middle Upper

Source: National attitudes survey on people's living (Statistics Japan),

http://survey.gov-online.go.jp/index-ko.html
 Trends in the proportional distribution
of class identity by age group
20s 30s 40s

70 70 70
60 60 60
50 50 50
40 40 40
30 30 30
20 20 20
10 10 10
0 0 0
1964 1974 1984 1994 2004 2014 2017 1964 1974 1984 1994 2004 2014 2017 1964 1974 1984 1994 2004 2014 2017

50s 60s 70+

70 70 70
60 60 60
50 50 50
40 40 40
30 30 30
20 20 20
10 10 10
0 0 0
1964 1974 1984 1994 2004 2014 2017 1964 1974 1984 1994 2004 2014 2017 1974 1984 1994 2004 2014 2017

Source: National attitudes survey on people's living (Statistics Japan), http://survey.gov-online.go.jp/index-ko.html

Japan is not the country with the highest
concentration of mid-scale values of 5 or
6.
Proportional distribution of class identity in 10-point scale
45
35
25
15
5
-5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Taiwan France Germany Korea Spain Sweden Japan

Source: 2012 ISSP Data

Other developed countries exceed Japan in the
proportion of people who identify as middle class.

Social status which respondents belong to (%)

60
40
20
0
Japan South Taiwan Italy Germany Sweden Great United
Korea Britain States
Lower class Working class Lower-middle class
Middle class Upper-middle class Upper class

Source: 2009 ISSP Data

Note: “Lower-middle class” is not provided as an option in Germany.
Japanese people are less sensitive to class
differences than those in Western
societies.
•  Japan has relatively weak working-class
identification. One reason could be due to Japan’s
late and fast industrialization, in which a working
class based on blue-collar jobs did not fully develop
(Ishida 1994).

The number of Japanese people who claim that their social
status is lower than their father’s is the highest.
Own status compared with father (%)
45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
Much lower Lower About equal Higher Much higher

Japan South Korea Taiwan Italy Germany

France Sweden Great Britain U.S.

Source: 2009 ISSP Data

Class-divided society has emerged.
•  Nihon no Keizai Kakusa (Economic Disparities in Japan),
written by Toshiaki Tachibanaki, was published in 1998. It
argued that the level of income inequality in Japan was no
less than the U.S. according to income data.

•  Fubyodo Shakai Nihon (Japan as an Unequal Society), written

by Toshiki Sato, was published in 2000. It claimed that the
Japanese structure of social stratification has become rigid,
based on a decline in intergenerational mobility at the upper
strata of social statuses.
Since the 1980s, the extent of
income inequality has increased.
Trend in income inequality (gini coefficients)
0.400
0.380
0.360
0.340
0.320
0.300
0.280
0.260
0.240
0.220
0.200
1962 1967 1972 1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014

source: R edistributional incom e survey (M inistry of H ealth, Labour, and W elfare)

Source: Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, Redistributional income survey
The extent of income inequality in Japan is not
low compared with other OECD countries.
Gini coefficient of disposable income inequality in 2014 (or latest year), 2010 and 2007, total population
2014 or latest year (↗) 2010 2007
0.50

0.45

0.40

0.35

0.30

0.25

0.20

Source: OECD (2014), OECD Income Distribution Database (IDD),

http://www.oecd.org/social/income-distribution-database.htm (accessed on March 22, 2017)
The extent of dissimilarity between class identification
and income inequality is relatively large in Japan.
Gini Gini coefficients and index of qualitative
variation of class identification by nation
0.38
U.S.
0.36
Britain
0.34

0.32 Japan

0.30

0.28
France
Germany
0.26
Sweden
0.24

0.22

0.20
0.87 0.875 0.88 0.885 0.89 0.895 0.9 0.905 0.91 0.915 0.92 0.925
IQV of class identification

Source: Gini coefficients are calcuated based on Comprehensive survey of people's living standards (2001)
for Japan and LIS data (2000) for others. IQVs are calculated based on 1990 ISSP.
Two similar-looking discourses are based
on different kinds of data sources.
•  The discourse of “all-middle-class society” is
based on attitude surveys.

•  The claim of high levels of income inequality is
based on income data.
Summary

•  Japan is as unequal as many other societies.

•  Attitudes of people in Japan are not as stratified as

Europe or North America.

•  At the same time, Japanese survey respondents tend

to claim that their social status is lower than their
parents. It appears that they are more pessimistic
about their current situation.